Me Too.

I admit the “me too’s” make me crazy. It’s not like I haven’t seen it before, and I suppose it is inevitable. People pick up on a catchphrase that is garnering attention and before you know it, they are jumping on the bandwagon to proclaim that they are the expert.

That’s what is happening with social selling.

There are various opinions on what social selling actually means. Those opinions come from folks out in the world of sales and from marketers, which I admit confuses me, because marketers don’t sell.

Here’s my view…

I see social selling as the ability to integrate social technology into the front-end of your sales process. Salespeople are always looking for ways to get in front of opportunities before their competitor can and using tools like LinkedIn, Twitter and InsideView gives them the leverage that they need to make that happen.

And…

It requires learning new skills. Not only do salespeople need training on how to use the platforms, but they need to understand how the various platforms fit, and they also need to know how to adapt their communication approach and behavior when engaging a prospect.

This is about selling. Not marketing.

I’m all for marketing and sales alignment. In fact, I happen to believe that with social media in the mix, we need that alignment more than ever. But come on…marketers taking the stage to discuss social selling? I worry that this is a example of using new terminology, but simply using it to mask old processes. As I have written before…social media marketing is NOT the same as social selling.

As you think about social selling, you need to ask…

Are marketers doing the referral building in a sales territory or with an individual’s reps social networks?

Are marketers out there prospecting for new, individual business opportunities?

Are marketers doing the sales research before calling on prospects?

Finally, are marketers maintaining the individual and personal relationship with the customer after the sales has been made in order to secure more business down the road?

If your goal is to shrink sales cycles, improve win rates, increase the percentage of profitable deals and thus, increase revenue, then you need to have a social selling conversation with someone who has both the in-depth SALES experience coupled with the technology and social media experience needed to achieve your goals.

If you are ready to ROCK YOUR SALES and want to learn HOW TO use social media to help you do it, we are launching a new program that will teach exactly what you need to do and why. Check out the details here. We’ve made it super easy for you enroll by letting you split the fee over 3 payments!

About Barbara Giamanco

Barbara Giamanco heads up Social Centered Selling and she is on a mission is to Ignite Sales Transformation. This transformation includes a heavy emphasis on helping companies attract more women to their sales ranks, providing the path and support to advance women into sales leadership roles and to promote diversity and inclusion across all teams. Barb co-authored The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media – the first book written about Social Selling. An outspoken advocate for women in business, leadership and sales, Barb hosts the popular Conversations with Women in Sales podcast. Committed to excellence in selling, Barb has been recognized as a Top 50 2019 Keynote Speaker and Top 50 Sales and Marketing Influencer by Top Sales World, a Top B2B Sales Influencer by LinkedIn and a Top 25 Sales Leader on Twitter. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter
Visit: www.scs-connect.com

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